The Fairest and Most Intelligent of Them All
by Chereche
Summary: Companion to "A Vision to Save Them All" and "Becoming a Mentor". As Ben's musings continue, he reflects on Evie and is pleasantly surprised to find that he had misjudged her.


Of the four of them, Evie was the one he interacted with the least. One would consider that surprising, given that she was a strong contender for the most beautiful girl of her generation (and yes, he knew that she considered herself to be the most beautiful period, and perhaps that was indeed the truth). And yet, from the start, Ben felt as if he had fully discerned Evie for who she was from the moment she had stepped out of the limousine and gave him her full attention the moment she realised he was royalty.

Like her mother and step-sister who surprisingly had a vanity that rivalled the Evil Queen if her career and commentary with E was anything to go by, he believed her to be someone fascinated primarily by her looks and what they could achieve for her. As much as he hated the whispers echoing around that she was nothing but a budding gold digger, he did buy into the notion that she was indeed in the market for a rich, titled, husband. He doubted though that there was anything truly manipulative or conniving behind her desires. It was simply, he believed, who she was and what she wanted for herself in life, and if she had the courage to openly declare and go after her dreams, who was he to fault her?

As time passed by and he slowly realised that he needed to broaden his horizon when it came to the four of them, he realised that Evie had the potential to be as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, perhaps even more so. Yes fashion, beauty and the prospect of future wealth fascinated her, but it was not a purely self-serving desire. Evie opened her interests up to the ones around her, especial those she would probably deny caring about.

She went out of her way to ensure that both she and Mal were dressed in the most flattering of ways, even if their styling seemed to be grunge, rebellious types of clothing that still, somehow managed to be oddly cute in its own way. He had seen her whip a needle and thread out of seeming nothingness to repair a torn sleeve on Carlos's outfit and, she had long since claimed responsibility for Jay's uniform. She tended to it with a care and dedication that was enviable – he was easily the best dressed on the team (and that was saying something since they, you know, wore the _exact same thing_ ).

There was an innocence to her that they all shared, except hers was targeted more towards the social intricacies of Auradon than the others. More than once Ben wondered if she pondered on what her life would have been like if her mother had not been banished and she had rightly gotten her claim of their world. She probably would have ended up like a mixture between Lonnie and Audrey, he guessed, in love with appearances and propriety, but still having a sense of virtue and duty that would put her above the rest. It was not necessarily a bad combination, he decided after a brief contemplation upon it.

Evie had also proven to be intelligent. _That_ was a surprise to him. Had he known about Chad's plan beforehand he would have found a way to circumvent it, even if he could not condone the fact that she had been cheating her way through classes. Chad should have never exploited her in the first place and gotten her to do all his assignments for him until Mal had, apparently fed up of the wastage of Evie's time, had put an end to it, leading Chad to seek revenge on Evie since she was a much easier target. He had not wanted Evie to be humiliated, and thus, when he heard the story and realised that Chad was fuming instead of celebrating, he was oddly proud to learn that she had passed the tests on her own efforts, and had past astoundingly so to boot. Her grade had come second only to Doug's and he was exceedingly proud of her for it. He hoped that she had learnt her lesson and realised that she was plenty intelligent on her own and did not need to rely on outside sources to prove her mind's soundness.

Her being intelligent was something he had regretfully not factored in, and he berated himself for it. After that incident, he observed her in more detail, and realised with a hint of sorrow, that her abuse had come in the form of her mother teaching her to belittle and devalue her own intelligence and will in favour of beauty and makeup. She had been indoctrinated into the 'find a prince and marry rich' mentality and that no one would want her for her talents and value, but solely for her potential skills as a wife. It was sad.

Ben wasn't a hypocrite. He was not going to devalue her domestic skills, especially since she genuinely did seem to love it, the caring of her friends, doing little skills to ensure that they all looked their best when they waded among the school population, but she was so more than that, he now saw, and more and more, he found himself thinking of ways of bringing that message out to her.

Except, she didn't seem to be the sort to need much prodding and with an obviously infatuated Doug a near constant presence now to complement that of her friends, he believed that, unlike with Carlos and Mal, his direct interference would not be needed. It didn't mean that he would go back into just seeing her as an extension of the group. No, Evie was her own individual and he needed to respect that. Just because she didn't seem to need him to the same extent didn't mean that he should not extend an arm of friendship to her. With his assistance, she could expand her horizons in ways she still probably didn't believe possible.

And he would do it, because she was deserving of no less. And, if she had any idea of what he was thinking, he was pretty certain that she would definitely agree with it. Evie, just like all of them, deserved the best.


End file.
